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I praised Alex Hahn’s Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince without remembering to mention its flaws. Considering the book is a Billboard imprint, the lack of attention to detail on matters outside of, or peripheral to Prince is unforgivable. The author’s assertion that Elvis Costello had his only artistic and commercial peak with My Aim Is True is not a very sound position. Even on matters tangential to Prince, some details are missing: Hahn neglects to mention Carole Davis’ career as an actress, relevant since, according to both Kurt Loder and the press release for her second LP, she turned down the female lead in Purple Rain. Several errors in discography—Elisa Fiorillo’s second album was not a Paisley Park or even a Warner Bros. release, for example—are indicative that Possessed was not adequately researched beyond the storytelling level. The contribution of Jill Jones, one of the two most significant Paisley Park signings, is slighted.
None of this diminishes the narrative strengths of the book. For simply naming the date and time when Prince turned (1 December 1987, the date of a bad ecstasy trip which resulted in the abrupt cancellation of The Black Album), Hahn deserves much credit.
